Does Participation in a Weekly Day Wellness Program Improve Overall Quality of Life for a Person Living with Multiple Sclerosis?

Background: The Multiple Sclerosis Achievement Center (MSAC), a program of Dignity Health Neurological Institute, conducts day wellness programs to address physical, cognitive and social well-being.  Program activities include individualized and group exercise, brain training, education, socialization, and community outings.  Empirically, program members indicate improvement in physical fitness, cognitive function, emotional wellness and quality of life.  

Objectives: To determine, through the use of patient reported outcome (PRO) measures, if members of these day wellness programs improve in areas of self-reported fitness and quality of life.

Methods: 95 people with MS (PwMS) completed 5 paper/pencil outcome measures between December 2016 and August 2017 as part of their initial enrollment or annual participation in the MSAC’s programs.  All outcomes were completed onsite at the MSAC as part of the members’ initial intake or weekly participation in the program and were utilized as baseline measures for the purpose of analysis.  Members were asked to complete the Multiple Sclerosis Neurological Questionnaire (MSNQ), Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale (MSIS-29), Multiple Sclerosis Self-Efficacy Scale- 10 item (MSSE), Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ), and Neuro-QoL (questions from the Anxiety, Depression, Emotion & Behavior, Positive Affect, Cognition, Ability to Participate, and Social Roles sections were used).  Follow-up outcomes were collected in December 2017.  Analysis will be performed to assess any changes from baseline results.

Results: Individual results were calculated by MSAC staff at the time of completion. Baseline measures demonstrate NeuroQoL scores for the MSAC members within one standard deviations of the Mean General Population Norm (Anxiety=52.99, Depression=49.39, Emotion & Behavior=47.54, Positive Affect=40.17, Cognition=43.78, Ability to Participate=42.35, Social Roles=42.72).  The mean MSIS-29 scores fall into a category of ‘moderate problems’ (x=37.65), while the GLTEQ indicates that participants are moderately active (x=19.90).  Mean scores of the MSNQ (x= 26.12)  and MSSE (x=70.54) are within published population norms. 

Conclusions: Collection of one year data has been completed, and analysis of the comparative data is currently underway.  Analysis will be finalized for submission of poster to determine if members of these day wellness programs improve in areas of self-reported fitness and quality of life.